Sarina, As far as your post goes, I would just like to say...WHAT IS WITH THESE DOCTORS??? This is ridiculous, I get the same kind of treatment even though I had PE with my last pregnancy and delivered her at 32 weeks. My Doc makes me feel like I'm over reacting too, but I don't care, there is no such thing as paranoid when it comes to the life of your unborn child. It's too risky!!!! It makes me furious!!!!

My pain didn't start until my liver hemoraged. At that time I was immediately taken to have a c-section (at 28 weeks) due to my liver platelets and uncontrolled blood pressure 210/170. For the next four days I complained of upper right and shoulder pain and shortness of breath, but was not diagnosed for 4 days after the pain never went away. (I was told to walk because I had gas) After they found the hemorage (huge blood clot on my liver) I was put into intensive care for three weeks.

I was diagnosed with PIH at 25 weeks. I was put on Aldomet to control my blood pressure and everything seems or seemed to be okay. Last week I had a severe headache for 3 days that would not go away and I got really dizzy at the store and almost passed out. So I went to the Dr. my Dr. was out so I had to see someone else. He told me it was muscular. That has since went away.

About a week ago I started having a dull aching pain under my right breast from my sternum, under my right rib, all the way to my back. At first I thought it was the baby with his foot there or from kicking but about 3 or 4 days ago he stopped kicking there and if it was the baby why would I have pain in my back too?? The pain is not severe but it is always there. I am not sure if I should go to the Dr. today or wait for my appointment on Monday. I feel like I am being paranoid. What do you think?? I am about 32 weeks pregnant.
Thanks
Janet

Hi, my name is Renae all the way from aussie. I just wanted to say hello as of January of this year i lost our little girl Samantha @24 weeks and almost my life to h.e.l.l.p, nobody knew what it was for 10 days then it was to late i had to make a choice between the baby and me, as i have a very loving hubby and 2 toddler girls i chose me and sent our baby to heaven so here i am. The pain i was in the first night was like someone had put a knife through my chest and it came out my back(this was at 24 weeks)10 days later i was on life support and had lost our baby. God was not ready for a wild child so he sent me back home to look after my hubby and our children.

When I was 19wks pregnant I was having severe pain in my upper abdomin, not necessarily under the right rib, but the whole general region, it felt like a pressure band around my abdomin. I went into the office and ended up seeing an nurse practitioner because the OB was out and she "guessed" that I had an inflammed stomach or developing ulcer gave me a few things to do and let me go. After a few days things died down and were fine. Within the last few days (now 25wks) the band has come back pretty bad. I was thinking maybe the stomach again, but now I'm more concerned. It just happens that also, my bp is elevated, not terrible, but elevated. It's been high enough for me to restrict my own activities but nothing like I had with my first pregnancy.

I see my ob this week so I'm thinking I should definitely bring this up. How can I make sure that she sees the seriousness that this may be? With my bp running high I am seeing her every 2 weeks anyway, but she says things like "well maybe this is just where you should be and it's nothing to worry about". It hovers at 138/88 on a good day, but definitely has spiked up pretty high on a bad day. I have also been getting more blurred vision and a little dizzyness, but no headaches or spots (I never got spots last time either though). When I tell her about the blurred vission and dizzyness she says not to worry about it unless it is constant. She's a great OB and probably one of the best around here (smallish town) but I want to make sure she takes me seriously when I bring these back up again, but at the same time I don't want to end up in the hospital if I'm making much ado about nothing.

Oh, and I've recently become nauseated and started vomiting too, which I thought was kind of wierd given I'm mid 2nd trimester. I didn't get "hellp" until right about delivery time with my first so it's sort of all new to me.

Mary, definitely mention the pain, nausea and vomiting to your OB when you see her. In fact, I'd probably call her first thing and let her know, because new-onset vomiting accompanied by epigastric pain can be a sign of HELLP Syndrome. That's actually how my HELLP first presented.

Make sure she checks your platelets and liver enzymes, even if she thinks nothing is wrong with you. Even if you're just fine (I'll keep my fingers crossed), a blood test is inexpensive and an easy way to give you peace of mind.

Please keep us updated. I'll be anxious to hear how you're doing. You should start your own thread so we can find you easily! [:)]

My pains were like Annegarrets an sarena and a great many others. I'm jus wondering if any og you had any pain in your kidneys on your side or your epigastric area the year or two before, or any concentrated time of urine that almost did not make any sense.
I AM NOT ONE WHO GETS UTI'S but year(s) before I was ever pregnant, I remenber having concentrated urine and some (?abdominal) and wanting to go to the doctors to be checked out; yet what was I goung to ask them about and to check for?
When I did get pregnant, low and behold, i was having right upper quadrant pain that I reported to the doctors, but the ignored, until my lab results wer all wacky and the pain was somewhat relentless. (I am wondering if the sigs manifest earlier, but we do not recognize them). I do get occasional pain in tha right upper quadrant on occassion now.(cant figure out; i am sometimes guessing strong antibiotic related--i am not currently pregnant.)....

I had the pain on and off for a couple of weeks, along with a feeling of general malaise and nausea. My dr. kept telling me it was heartburn, because my pain was centered right at my sternum. She prescribed prescription heartburn meds. When that didn't work, she sent me to the gastroenterologist for gallstones (it was finally that bloodwork that showed the elevated LFTs).

I had a giant bruise right over my liver on the right side, where blood vessels had started to burst because of the pressure of my live swelling. The dr. dismissed it. (My current peri always refers to me as "the bruise patient" with her students, because apparently that is so rare and serious).

I also had pale, clay colored stools and very dark urine. When I complained that I just didn't feel well and wasn't feeling the baby much, the dr. sent me to L&D for monitoring. The nurse gasped when she saw my urine sample. She thought I had a kidney infection. I told the dr. my back hurt, because by that time it had started radiating around to my back, but she said the pain wasn't from my kidneys because it was too high up (duh, it was right over my liver!) She never even ran bloodwork, just checked the baby and sent me home.

The two days before my son was delivered, the pain was so intense that I literally could not sit down, unless it was bolt upright in a chair; any slumping or leaning took my breath away. I couldn't lie down, and I think I slept all of one hour the entire time. On the way to the ER, I cried every time we went over a bump in the road. It was the most intense pain I've ever felt, with the possible exception of having an ovarian cyst burst (although that is acute and resolves fairly quickly). I was happy to get the mag because it actually helped relieve some of the pain (along with the pain killer they gave me).

By the time I delivered, my platelets were down to about 30,000 and my liver was near rupture. I am incredibly lucky that there doesn't seem to be any permanent damage.

They say you forget pain (otherwise, why would women have more than one child?) but I have not and will never forget that HELLP liver pain!